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From the Mainichi Daily News




--Slam Dunk' manga magazine fouls out over plagiarism claims--

"Slam Dunk" has been, well, slam-dunked, according to Cyzo (January).

One of Japan's most successful manga, basketball-themed "Slam Dunk" ran in Shukan Shonen Jump for seven years from 1990 and sales of its spin-off books have topped over 100 million copies.

Now, however, Takehiko Inoue, the author of "Slam Dunk," is faced with allegations of plagiarism just months after he sent shockwaves through the manga world by making a similar, and successful, accusation against another artist.

Inoue successfully accused Yuki Suetsugu of ripping off his work, which led to a court ruling a few months ago banning all 25 books making up Suetsugu's "Eden no Hana" series and ordering their recall.

Inoue's litigation sent shockwaves through the manga world, but now Inoue is facing accusations that he stole work for "Slam Dunk."

"Some of the cuts of players pictured in 'Slam Dunk' are almost identical to the photos of NBA players in basketball magazines. I wouldn't go so far to say that he's done exactly what Suetsugu did and traced other drawings, but there's no doubt he's at least used the photos as a reference," a comic industry magazine's chief editor tells Cyzo. "Considering we're talking about an artist who's sold over 100 million copies here, the effects of being exposed like that could be pretty far-reaching."

Japanese law has examples of artists who've fallen foul of copyright laws by using others' images as a reference for their own manga.

Shueisha, publisher of the "Slam Dunk" series, refused to answer Cyzo's questions about the case before the magazines hit the presses.

And not helping Inoue's cause is that many have taken delight in the claims and are doing what they can to spread the word.

"Making a bad situation even worse, there's a site from South Korea, a well-known copycat capital, that listed the manga frames from 'Slam Dunk' right beside the photos of NBA players that they are supposed to have been copied from and let the whole world know," a writer specializing in online news tells Cyzo. "This has caused Inoue to lose a whole lot of face." (By Ryann Connell)

December 21, 2005





Hm. I always assumed they used photos or video for reference anyway. But Suetsugu traced other drawings?? Sheesh, deadlines can make you do crazy things.